Yahoo Local Gets Way Enhanced

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Yahoo Local Gets Way Enhanced

You ever feel like you’re way behind and you’re just going to get more behind? My review queue is jammed. I may just take a weekend and do nothing but review resources and drink Red Bull.

Anyway, Yahoo! Local has launched a new local search prduct, Yahoo! Local available at http://local.yahoo.com/ . This new version of Yahoo Local provides a few more options to the Yahoo Local that I reveiewed in August.

Last August I started by searching for a chiropractor in Portland, Oregon, so I started there again. I found 626 results this time (as compared to 376 last time). Result lists included name, phone number, distance, and rating, along with the ability to sort by name, rating, or distance (which was not available last time and one of the things I crabbed about.) Some listings — try Sushi in Portland — also list price ranges; those results may be sorted by price as well.

The default radius for the search is ten miles; you can go as low as one mile and as high as fifty miles. Yahoo also offers you other search query options (in this case, “chiropractor school” and “dr chiropractor”) and the ability to group the found sites on a map. Some searches (try Sushi in Portland again) lead to extensive category breakdowns on the left side of the search result page.

The ability to sort adds a lot to the enhanced search results. I would like to see more reviewed/rated sites and a clearer explanation of how the search results are being sorted. And as long as we’re RSSing everything in the world, how about a feed for new reviews of the keyword-matched stores of my choice (for example, I search for Sushi within 10 miles of Portland, and subscribe to an RSS feed of new reviews for any sushi stores within 10 miles of Portland)?